


We'll Be There For You- A Friends Retelling

by LoyalandTrue



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: A Past Monica/Rachel relationship, A sort of retelling of the Friends story, Bisexual Monica, Coming Out, Lesbian Rachel, Multi, Pansexual Joey, There is some updating, Very very loosely follows the series, also this takes place roughly in the modern day, but only in the sense that i am being guided by it, coming out stories, for one thing, it kinda takes off in its own direction, its very gay, no specific years attached to it, tags to be updated as the story goes on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-05-10 03:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14729207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoyalandTrue/pseuds/LoyalandTrue
Summary: Things are pretty different, in this story. But one thing never changes: your friends will be there for you. An updated and altered Friends story, starting at the very beginning, but taking a bit of a different direction than the original. Hopefully you'll enjoy it!





	1. An Unexpected Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A normal afternoon in the coffee house gets a little less normal when Monica receives an unexpected phone call from an old friend.

“And then I turned back to my date, saying, ‘Hey, isn’t that guy a New York Yankee?’ But he was already half-way across the room. I don’t know if he was going to ask the guy out, or just to talk sports with him, but either way I was kind of out of the picture at that point.”

Chandler took another sip of his coffee, as Monica reached across the couch to pat him on the arm. 

“Hey, cheer up. At least your waiter didn’t turn out to be your date’s ex, and you didn’t have to spend most of the night listening to their uncomfortable banter, only to end up leaving when you found them making out in the bathroom.”

“Yeah Chandler, at least all of that stuff didn’t happen. Say, Monica, how did YOUR date go last night?” Phoebe chimed in. It was sometimes hard to say if Phoebe genuinely misunderstood many of the things her friends said, or if she just preferred to keep them on their toes with her sharp wit and observational humor. Most came to the conclusion that it was a healthy mix of both. 

“It was horrible, it was everything I said and more.” Monica grabbed one of the pillows on the couch and buried her face in it, but immediately recoiled with a grimace and tossed it to Joey. “Why did I do that, that pillow smells awful.” she scrubbed at her face with her hands, in order to rub off some of the germs she couldn’t help but think about before continuing. “And I didn’t know what to do, either! I mean, I didn’t want to leave without paying, but there was no way I was going to be getting a check from our waiter anytime soon, judging by the intensity of their make-out session. I eventually caught the attention of one of the other waitresses and I kind of explained it to her, and she got me a check. It was humiliating. He hasn’t called me, of course, and I have no intention of calling him. I am content to allow my memory of his face to grow old and fade away.”

Just then Monica’s phone rang. She looked at it with displeasure. She didn’t recognize the number, and under ordinary circumstances she would have let it ring and go to voicemail. However, her new boss was an old man who had never taken to text, email, or any other form of communication. She suspected that he wouldn’t be using the telephone if the telegraph hadn’t gone out of style. Thus, she no longer had the luxury of ignoring unknown phone calls, as he had also made it a habit to call from an ever-changing amount of telephone numbers. She suspected it was for the sole purpose of making her life more difficult.

She stood up and waved off Chandler who had begun talking again, as she walked off a short distance, to a quieter corner of the coffee house. Putting on her best and perkiest voice, she answered, “Hello?”

“Hello? Is this Monica Geller?”

Not recognizing the feminine voice, Monica responded “Yes, this is she.”

“Oh thank god! Monica, this is Rachel Green. From… you know. High school. College.”

“Oh! Hey… Rachel! Its good to hear from you,” Monica said, keeping her faux voice intact. She hadn’t heard from Rachel in…

“It’s been like 6 or 7 years, hasn’t it? Anyway, I’m really sorry to call you, Monica, I know I hate it when people call me, but I really needed to get a hold of you, and when I called your parents’ house they gave me this number.”

“You called my parents?” Monica said, incredulous.

“I knowww, I know, but its… kind of an emergency. Its not something I can really easily explain via text or telephone. Is there somewhere that I could meet you? Like… now?”

Monica sighed, internally, but gave Rachel the directions to the coffee house, and Rachel said she would be there within 15 minutes.

“That’s just around the corner from here. Thank you so much, Monica, I know things got weird between us, but I really need a friend right now, and some help, and I just… thank you.”

With that, Rachel hung up the phone, and Monica walked back to her friends, who were now talking about the worst dates they ever experienced. Monica plopped back onto the couch with a sigh.

“And then she threw the… hey, Monica, what’s wrong? Why the long face?” Joey said, interrupting his story.

“Rachel Green is on her way here.” 

Phoebe sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth, and exchanged a knowing look with Chandler. Joey, on the other hand, looked confusedly between the three of them.

“Rachel Green? Who is Rachel Green?”

“Rachel Green was…” Monica started, but trailed off, not knowing what to call Rachel.

“Rachel was her childhood friend, and college girlfriend, before they broke up. She ‘decided she was straight,’ and ended up dating a veterinarian,” Phoebe filled in.

“He was a dentist, and she didn’t ‘decide she was straight,’ she was…IS bisexual, and just… decided it was easier to just date guys, rather than come out to her parents,” Monica corrected, with the slightest tinge of bitterness in her voice. But she couldn’t let her old friend go undefended. It had hurt, when she broke up with her, but she did understand. Rachel was dependent on her parents for everything, particularly her father, and his stance on LGBTQ+ people had never been cloudy. The prospect of coming out to him was terrifying to Monica, and she knew that Rachel had always been fearful he would find out about the two of them. 

Now, it had been six and a half years since Monica saw Rachel last, and she said she needed help with an emergency. 

“So to be clear, if she’s bisexual is it okay for me to ask her out when she gets here?” Joey asked.

“I dunno Joe… you tell me,” Chandler said, gesturing towards the door. In the doorway stood a figure in a pure white wedding dress, with a giant poofy skirt, which was currently bundled up and clutched in her fingers to allow her to walk. 

“Monica!” she cried, shifting her skirt to allow her to navigate the step down, and hurrying as much as she could toward Monica. Monica stood and hugged her, out of instinct.

“Rachel! Hi! You’re…” she gestured toward the dress, unsure what to say.

“Yeah, I uhhh… I called off my wedding. You remember Barry?”

“The dentist?” Monica asked.

“Yeah, him. Today was our wedding day. Was supposed to be our wedding day. But I called it off. I… it wasn’t right.” Rachel looked as if she might burst into tears, so Monica gestured toward the couch. 

“Would you like to sit down?” Chandler moved to the far end of the couch, making plenty of room. Phoebe was already sitting in the floor, legs crossed and folding origami cranes with paper napkins. Rachel looked down at her dress doubtfully and said, “Probably not, I don’t think I could really sit in this dress. That’s actually part of my emergency. I don’t have anyone that I can go to in the city. Any friends I have live so far away, and I just can’t go back to my parent’s apartment building. It will be the first place they’ll look for me, and I just… I can’t deal with them right now. Not like this. Could I possibly come to your apartment, and borrow some old clothes or something? Just long enough for me to get some stuff together, I can return them.”  
Rachel looked as though she might cry again, and Monica couldn’t turn her away like this. 

“Of course, Rachel. Come on, I live in the apartment building across the street and two buildings down. We can go over there right now.”

Monica looked to her friends, to see whether or not they were coming. Chandler chugged the last of his coffee and stood up, Joey wrapped the cookie he had been planning on eating into a paper napkin to bring along, and Phoebe happily made a final fold on the paper crane she’d been decorating, tucked a five dollar bill into one of the folds, and took the whole thing to the counter, where she dropped it into the tip jar. Apparently, they were all coming along.

Rachel gave another “Thank you,” this time lower and shakier, again looking as if she could burst into tears. Monica didn’t blame her, after the day she’d apparently been having. Her previous misgivings forgotten, she patted Rachel on the back as she walked outside with her, and said “It’s no problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you've enjoyed it so far! The next chapter was written at the same time as this one, but it felt like a natural breaking point.  
> I was inspired the other day to write out some notes about "Friends But Gay," which really turned into a full-blown fix-it-verse, with pages upon pages of notes. From that, I decided to begin working on this fic! It's sort of the first full-blown extended fan fiction I've written, so I would love some feedback! Please leave a comment below to let me know what you thought, and to let me know if you'd like more!


	2. An Unexpected Announcement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back at the apartment, Rachel gets cleaned up, and is forced to deal with the fall-out from the wedding she bailed on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Coming Out Goes Badly, Poor Reception from Parent

After making it upstairs to the apartment, and getting Rachel changed into some old clothes of Monica’s, Rachel seemed to be in a little better state of mind. While she had failed to comment on the apartment when she first walked in, she now looked around, complimenting Monica for this piece of artwork, or on that rug. Chandler, Phoebe, and Joey had settled in on Monica’s couch, now watching some sitcom that was on Netflix. Rachel didn’t seem to notice, and Monica was sitting at the kitchen table, her mind preoccupied with thoughts of Rachel. She had gotten a picture of what had happened, from what little Rachel had said at the coffee house, but surely there was more to the story. But she knew there would be little point in asking, until Rachel was ready to talk about it. 

Suddenly, there was a phone ringing, and Monica saw Rachel freeze. When the ringing continued, eventually Chandler, Phoebe, and Joey’s attentions were pulled away from the television, toward Rachel, who had begun fumbling to pull the phone out of her pocket. Looking at the caller ID, she swore.

“Oh god. It’s my dad. Oh god what do I do.” She stood looking helplessly at the phone, apparently frozen with indecision. Monica stood and strode towards her. She put an arm on her shoulder, and Rachel looked her in the eye.

“Rachel, I don’t know the whole situation, but maybe you should answer it and try to deal with some of… whatever happened… now, rather than avoiding it. You’ve been close to your dad for years, I don’t think there’s much chance of you dropping out of his life without explanation. Just answer it. I’ll be here.”

Somehow this gave Rachel the courage to pick up the phone. Monica couldn’t help wondering how it had become this again- her, acting as Rachel’s best, often only friend, encouraging her to stand up to her father. It had become that when they were in middle school, and had remained that way until the day Rachel had walked out of Monica’s life. But now, it was as if the break-up, and the six and a half years following the break-up, hadn’t existed. In fact, it seemed like their romantic relationship had been pushed aside, as well. Once again they were friends, perhaps best friends, and it was Monica's job right now to have Rachel's back. 

Rachel, staring Monica dead in the eyes, clicked the green answer button on the phone and lifted it to her ear. She said, firmly, “Hello?”

The instant the harsh voice on the other end spoke, Rachel seemed to wilt. She broke eye contact with Monica, and her voice seemed to fade. It was impossible to tell exactly what was being said on the other end of the line. There were no discernible words, it was more of a constant buzz, like a harsh droning. Nevertheless, Monica recognized well the harsh tone of Dr. Green, and she could tell that he was exceedingly angry. 

The voice went on and on for several minutes, and all Rachel said in that time was “Yes,” and “No,” and an occasional noise of agreement. The television had gone quiet, muted by someone in an effort to hear better, and everyone was staring at Rachel now, who had begun pacing, obviously agitated, but she still didn’t try to offer any explanation.

Finally, she looked up at Monica again, seeming to gather her courage. She took a seat at the kitchen table, across from Monica, and said “No, Daddy, I won’t. I won’t come back home. I don’t want to see Barry right now, I don’t want to marry Barry at all.”

The voice seemed to hush for a few moments. Then it resumed its tirade, but Rachel did not let her father get far this time.

“Yes, Daddy, I know it cost you a lot of money. I’m sorry, this was something I should have worked out long before the wedding, but I just couldn’t marry Barry. I couldn’t.”

The voice buzzed on for a few moments, and Rachel replied, “No, Daddy, it’s not something specific about Barry, it’s not something that he could fix, it’s not ANY of that.”

Finally, the room was able to make out clearly, for the first time in the conversation, words that the voice was saying. “THEN WHAT IS IT THEN?”

“It’s because I’m gay, Daddy.” The words seemed to flow out of Rachel’s mouth, as though they’d been rehearsed a thousand times, and as if she had not really intended to say them. Her eyes widened a bit, seeming to be amazed at her own audacity, and the whole room seemed to hold its breath. 

There was a long, drawn-out moment of silence, waiting for Dr. Green’s response.

Suddenly, there was a click, and Rachel clung to her phone tightly. 

“Daddy? Daddy?” she said, as if hoping against hope that the click had been a malfunction, as if her father was still perhaps on the other end of the line, waiting to give his response. But there was no one. Dr. Green had hung up on his daughter.

Rachel pulled the phone away from her face, now damp with sweat, and stared at it with a blank face for a few moments. Tears began to well up in her eyes. She looked up, at Monica, and with the first tears starting to stream down her face, she said, “This wasn’t how I meant to come out to him.”

Suddenly, her body was wracked with a sob, and it seemed as though the room shrunk around her. She was living her worst nightmare, and she couldn’t believe what was happening right now. She could not control her emotions, as tears ran down her cheeks, and she rocked gently back and forth in the chair as sobs seemed to choke out of her. 

Monica leapt out of her chair, flying around the table to wrap her old friend in her arms. All of the arguments of the past, all of the thoughts about the hurt and rejection that still haunted Monica at night sometimes, all of that seemed to fly out the window. Because she knew her friend, and she knew that this was her worst nightmare, come to life, and she knew that she needed a friend right now. 

The initial hug seemed to cause Rachel to sob harder, but Monica shushed her, gently. “It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay. I’m here. I’m here.”

“It’s not. It’s not going to…” Rachel sniffed, unable to get the words out through her sobs. “It’s not going to be okay. It’s… it’s not, he hates me, I don’t know what… what I’m…” she couldn’t finish the thought.

“It is, it’s going to work out okay,” Monica said, with more certainty than she really felt herself. “I have an extra bedroom, you can stay here for awhile. I’ll help you figure something out.”

“We all will.”

Monica and Rachel separated a little bit, neither willing to let go of the other entirely. They both looked up, to see who had spoken. It was Chandler, though all three of the friends had come from the couch to the kitchen table.

“I know you don’t know us well,” he continued, “But we… well, I… have been in your situation. I’m still here, it worked out okay for me. So I…WE are going to work to make sure it works out okay for you.”

He spoke with a confidence that none present really knew he possessed, but no one questioned it either.

Rachel’s sobs had subsided somewhat, and her tears had dried a little. 

“Thank you guys…” she said, sniffing.

“Hey, any friend of Monica’s is a friend of ours!” said Joey, not knowing what else to say.

“I’m gonna hug you now, if that’s okay,” said Phoebe. “I know you don’t know me super well, but hopefully you will, and you look like you could use a hug now.”

Rachel nodded, and Phoebe gave her a tight hug. Monica, unable to resist, hugged the both of them from the back. Chandler moved in to give an awkward pat, and was immediately seized by Monica into the group hug. Not one to be left out, Joey joined them, attempting to wrap his inadequate arms around their mass.

This group of people may not know the Rachel sitting before them well yet, but already they loved and supported her in a way Rachel’s parents had failed her: Unconditionally, for her most honest and true self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AWWWWW
> 
> I had this idea in my head, that for Rachel, calling off the wedding was a lot more meaningful than just that she wanted to be her own person- though that was certainly part of it too!  
> There's definitely going to be some time spent in the next few chapters dealing with the emotions and the old drama, and reconciling the differences that happened long ago, but for now, Rachel really just needs her friend(s).  
> Hopefully I'll get on churning out more chapters, but for now, please let me know how I'm doing in the comments below! Is there anything you love? Anything that doesn't click for you? Just want to see more? I would love to hear any of that! Thanks so much :)


	3. An Unexpected Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel wakes to face a day in her new reality, and meets a familiar face...

The next morning, Rachel woke, with a little pit of dread in her stomach. She held her eyes tightly shut, scared that yesterday had all been a dream, and that she would wake up lying next to Barry again. 

Finally, she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment. It was unfamiliar. She turned to the side, and found that she was lying on a couch. She sat up and took a look around.

Monica’s apartment. It hadn’t been a dream. 

Rachel swung her feet to the floor, and sat up.

It hadn’t been a dream.

She put her head in her hands, a headache still faintly there, after the crying she had done yesterday. 

She wouldn’t do that again today. She was in a new place, she was starting a new life, and it was all for the best.

She thought of her father, and winced. Well, maybe there would be some crying today. But not until she had some food.

She stood, and looked around. 

It was so quiet. Apparently she was alone. 

She looked at the clock on the wall. 11:00. Well, it had been a late night, and she felt she deserved a bit of rest. 

She shuffled to the kitchen, and opened the fridge. Not seeing anything that appealed to her, she looked around and spotted a cereal box on the table, with a note taped to it. 

She grabbed the milk from the fridge, grabbed a bowl, and sat down at the table.

Tearing the note off, she began to read.

 

Rachel,  
Had to head to work, figured you could use some extra rest after yesterday. I get off at 2:30, but I’ve got some errands to run, so I probably won’t be back till 5. I’ll pick up dinner on the way home, probably a pizza from the place down the street.  
Joey should be home today, he lives in the apartment across the hall. Let him know if you need anything.  
See you tonight, we can talk more then! Meantime, spend some time relaxing.  
Netflix password is StopUsingMyNetflixRoss (Cap on each word)  
Monica

 

Rachel smiled at the password, as she re-read the note a few times while she ate her cereal, lacking anything else to read. 

After she finished eating, she dumped her dishes in the sink and ran some water over them. That done, she looked around and wondered what she should do. She decided to utilize the Netflix as Monica had suggested, and flipped on the TV for some idle watching.

Suddenly, barely 10 minutes into her first show, Rachel thought she heard something and muted the television. It sounded like…the doorknob. 

Whipping around on the couch, she stared intently at the doorknob and saw it turning, as someone fiddled with it. Her heart immediately began pounding, and she jumped up, scanning the room for a makeshift weapon. 

 

There, a baseball bat by the door. Presumably placed there by Monica for just such a situation.

Rachel raised the bat over her head dramatically, as the door swung open and a figure entered. Rachel brought the bat down just as she recognized the figure.

With a scream, the man fell to the floor, covering his head, though Rachel had already pulled back on her force.

At first failing to recognize who was standing over him, the man shouted “MONICA, I SWEAR, I WASN’T COMING TO SNOOP ABOUT YOUR NETFLIX P-… Rachel?”

Staring at Rachel was a familiar face, one she recognized from years of sleepovers and school dances.

“Ross?”

Rachel reached down and offered Ross her hand. “Wow, I haven’t seen you in… forever! Since Monica and I…” she trailed off as Ross got to his feet, not sure how much Ross knew of her and Monica’s relationship.

Ross didn’t hesitate to fill in the gaps, though. “Yeah, since you guys had that fight and stopped talking! Wow, Rachel Green, here in Monica’s apartment! What are you doing here, anyway?”

Well, Rachel could tell that Ross had not gained any tact in their time apart. And also that he did not seem to know the whole story. There had never really been a fight between her and Monica, or she didn’t think that’s what Monica would have thought. Though to be fair, most of what Rachel remembered of that conversation was a lot of tears, from the both of them.

“Well, I was in a bit of a tough spot and your sister let me crash here last night, and maybe for a little while, until I can find my own place.”

Ross hardly seemed to be listening, instead plotting what he’d say next.

“Uh-huh, yeah. Well, hey, you wanna go get some coffee? There’s a place at the corner, they make a pretty good cup of coffee, and we can talk. And hey, it’s my treat!”

Rachel, not really having anything else to do at the moment, shrugged. “Sure, why not! We can catch up.” She didn’t have much interest in hanging out with Ross, but for a free coffee, it couldn’t hurt, could it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there's Ross! This chapter and the next were written all together, and broken up here. I felt that it was very drawn-out, but necessary to the story and flow. I hope it continued some of the same qualities that you all liked in the first chapters! Let me know if you noticed some differences, and whether or not you liked them! How do you feel about Ross? What do you hope to see from him in the future? I definitely have my own plans for him, but I would love to here feedback as well!


	4. A New Rachel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a coffee with Ross, Rachel continues to come to grips with her new situation and new life.

“…And you remember Carol? She was my girlfriend when you and Monica stopped being friends. Well, anyway, you know that we were pretty serious? I was even going to ask her to marry me. And then, she tells me one day that she’s gay! Can you believe?”

Rachel visibly cringed at Ross’s lack of tact. Did this man actually interact with other human beings? This gave her a thought.

“What is it you do for a living, Ross?”

“Oh, I’m a paleontologist! I’ve been working on this great new exhibit…” 

As he began to drone on, Rachel recalled his extensive rock… (Oh yes, FOSSIL) collection that he had always been asking her to come see when she’d be at the Geller house. So, as it turned out, he did NOT interact with other human beings, or at least, not primarily. She also began to realize that asking him about his work might have been a mistake as he continued to rave about his upcoming exhibit. She could tell he was very passionate about it, but she really only understood half of the words he was saying.

Finally, she broke in to say “Well Ross, this has been great, but I really should be getting back to the apartment now…”

Abandoning his thread of conversation, he quickly agreed, “Of course of course, I’ll walk you back over there!” 

He laid down a measly $1 tip, and grabbing his coat, headed for the door. Rachel scrounged up an extra few dollars, tossing it on the table as she followed. One thing she had always retained, after her breakup with Monica, was her tendency to leave a large tip. Monica, hoping to one day become a chef, had become acquainted with a lot of waiters and waitresses in college, who had instilled in Monica, and by extension Rachel, the importance of tips for their livelihood. It had always felt like a little act of rebellion, for Rachel to leave a larger tip when her friends and family would often leave maybe a 5% tip, or worse, no tip at all. And leaving this tip now filled her with another little jolt of self-confidence, as well as a touch of irritation at Ross. Well, perhaps something more like fanning the flames of her irritation, after listening to him complain about his ex-girlfriend’s sexual orientation. 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they got to the door of Monica’s apartment, Rachel turned to face Ross, hoping desperately to convey the message that they should separate here. Ross, fortunately, seemed to get that message. Unfortunately, he understood it with very different connotations.

“Wow, Rachel, it’s almost like we’re getting back from a date!” Ross laughed, almost an inane giggle. “I really enjoyed talking with you, and seeing you again after all this time. Y’know, maybe we should get together again soon, and make it an official date…” he continued suggestively. 

All Rachel could think was ‘Wow, he’s clueless.’ She had spent the entirety of their “date” listening to him ramble on about whatever he wanted to talk about. He had brought up her and Monica’s “fight” multiple times, mentioned not only his apparently-gay ex-girlfriend but also three other girls he had dated in the past several years, and talked all about his work. Rachel had never once gotten the chance to talk about how she’d ended up at Monica’s apartment, which had presumably been what they’d originally been going to discuss, let alone any of her own past relationships or work history (not that there had been anything notable in either of those areas, besides her ex-fiance…)

“Ross, I really don’t think that that’s a good idea…” Rachel said, hoping he’d take the hint and leave.

“What? Why not!” Ross said, incredulously. “I thought we had a great time today, and now that you’re back in Monica’s life, I thought maybe… you know, I had a crush on you, back when we were in college. And high school.”

“Yeah, Ross, I knew,” Rachel said, almost bemusedly. Did he really think he’d been subtle?

“Well,” Ross continued, “I never acted on it, or said anything, and I always regretted it. So I thought maybe this could be my second chance. Our second chance…”

Rachel cringed at the sappiness of his comment. “Ross, I think it might be important for you to know that I ended up coming to Monica yesterday… because I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I… I left my fiance, Barry, on the day of our wedding.” Rachel didn’t think that it was really necessary to tell him that she’d literally shown up to meet Monica in her wedding dress.

Ross seemed a bit taken aback. “Oh…” 

He thought for a moment, looking at her with a blank stare. Then, it seemed as though a lightbulb flashed in his eyes. 

“Well, I know that means that you’re fresh out of a relationship, but that doesn’t mean we have to get serious right away. We can just talk, kinda help process and get through what happened…”

Rachel sighed, and said, “Ross, you don’t even know WHAT happened.”

This didn’t phase him. “Well, what did happen?”

In the past 24 hours, Rachel had had to struggle with this question herself. What had happened? It had started to feel real. She had started to realize that she was really about to get married, and she had realized that she was not excited at all. She had realized that the last time she’d felt happy was the time she’d flirted with that waitress while Barry was in the bathroom, and when the waitress had slipped her a phone number. She realized that everything she had been shaping her life to be was because she was afraid of the reaction of her father, and of her other friends, and that had scared her suddenly. Rachel realized, perhaps for the first time in her life, that marrying Barry was not going to get more attractive as the wedding got closer. And yes, maybe all of that had taken too long to sink in, since she’d managed to act on these revelations scant hours before the ceremony, but it had felt more right to walk away from marrying Barry than it ever had to accept his proposal. 

And in the past 24 hours, Rachel had done a lot of crying. And she had stood up to her father, for the first time in her life. And she had made amends with her former best friend, or at least started to, and she had made 3 new friends that supported her for the person she was, not the person they thought she should be.  
In the past 24 hours, Rachel’s life had, for maybe the first time in her life, begun to feel like hers. Maybe she was only fully realizing that now, when faced with the prospect of returning to some aspect of that old-Rachel, a Rachel that might have toyed with the idea of dating Monica’s brother. Because Rachel knew, just KNEW, that she did not want to be the old Rachel that smiled, and nodded, and pretended to like what she was faced with because she feared that what she really wanted was unattainable. 

What did happen? What happened was the birth of a new Rachel. And maybe she wasn’t totally sure of herself yet, maybe she didn’t have the confidence to not cry after standing up to her father, but she surely could stand up for herself to this man.

“What happened, Ross, is that I was gay. Am gay. I’m gay. And so I couldn’t marry Barry.”

Ross stood, slack-jawed, mouth just hanging open. After a long silence he said, “Oh.”

“So you might understand, Ross, why going out on a date with you might be, well, a little out of the question.” Rachel stood, arms now crossed, and looked at him for a further response.

Ross continued to stand, apparently not sure how to respond. Finally, he just said, “Oh,” again. 

Then, he began to back away. “Well, uhh... well, I should get going Rachel. It was... uh... it was...great to see you. I should... Well, Bye!” he said. The awkwardness he felt was palpable, but with his final bye, he was almost cheery. It made Rachel wonder if he had really heard or understood what she'd said. Maybe he was still just processing it. Or maybe he was acting as if what Rachel had just said hadn't really happened. Maybe that’s what he wished.

Rachel stood for a moment and stared at the flight of stairs he had taken, pondering all these questions. She was not sure what to think. She knew that she would probably have to figure out how to talk to Ross again later, especially if she'd be staying with Monica for awhile. For now, though, she needed a break from big, emotional situations. 

Realizing that her vision had blurred while she'd been standing in the hall, she swore and wiped away the tears that had brimmed in her eyes. 

Why was she crying now? The situation had gone well, as well as it could have gone. Ross hadn't even reacted that badly, nor did his opinion really matter to her. And she surely didn’t need another crying fit right now.

Continuing to wipe the tears from her eyes, and unable to face the empty apartment and the prospect of more Netflix for the next few hours, Rachel remembered Monica’s note. Monica had mentioned that Joey would be home, in the apartment across the hall. It might be worth a visit him for a bit, to talk with someone supportive and calm her nerves. Maybe that would make her feel better.

She walked the few steps over, and knocked on the green door. A few moments later, the same man she remembered hugging her yesterday opened the door, and said, “Rachel! Hey!”

Rachel fully intended to ask, properly and without tears, to enter his apartment. But what came out instead was a blubbering “Ca-Can I come… Can I come… IN?” choked out between sobs. 

Without question, Joey embraced her in a hug and invited her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always seem to end my arcs on crying and hugging, lol! I hope this set of chapters lived up to the first. As I said in Chapter 3's notes, this didn't feel wholly essential to the heart of our new queer Friends story, but at the same time, it felt very important for Rachel's development, and the portrayal of Ross. For those of you who may be Ross fans out there, I do apologize for his negative portrayal, but there is more to look forward to, perhaps even some character development? You'll have to stay tuned to see.  
> What did you like about these chapters? Did my writing stay somewhat consistent? Was the characterization still pretty in-tune, or does it need some tweaking? Who can you not wait to hear more about? I would love to hear any and all feedback you have, including if you want to see some more chapters soon! Hopefully I'll be inspired to keep going.  
> Thanks for reading <3


	5. Joey's Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her encounter with Ross, Rachel heads to Joey's apartment, in search of a bit of comfort. She finds a lot of comfort, and even some insight!

Rachel wiped away her tears, still sniffling a bit, as she shuffled into Joey’s apartment.

“Come in, have a seat,” Joey said, ushering Rachel in and gesturing vaguely toward the couch across the room.

Rachel sat down, on the edge of the couch, not totally comfortable in the unfamiliar apartment. Joey stood awkwardly for a moment, not seeming to know what to do with himself. Finally, he piped up, “Can I get you something to drink?”

“That would be nice,” Rachel said with another sniff, finally starting to calm down. 

Joey scurried back towards the small kitchen, and began poking around looking for cups.

Rachel took the opportunity to look around the apartment. The decorations were sparse, but the apartment still felt… lived in, comfortable. Two worn recliners languished in front of a big-screen TV. Clearly, these three items were the focal point of the entire apartment. 

Over in the kitchen area, there were two green stools sitting at the counter. They looked hardly used at all. Rachel suspected that the majority of the eating done in this apartment was either done in the two recliners, on the couch she was currently occupying, or…

“Is that a foosball table?” she asked, finally noticing the bulky piece of furniture near the door. She had expected to see a dining table of some sort, somewhat mirroring Monica’s apartment in miniature.

Joey, his head buried in a cabinet, turned around and said “Oh yeah! That’s a long story. We couldn’t agree on what dining table to get, so we ended up with this instead! Still works as a table, if we put the plastic cover over it. Which come to think of, I haven’t seen that in months…”

Joey touched his chin thoughtfully, then with a careless shrug turned back to his task of locating some form of cup.

“Aha!” he said, pulling out two mismatched plastic cups from the cabinet he had been perusing. One was a plain blue, the other had a “Central Perk” design on the side.

“I knew we had at least a couple more in there.” Joey said, holding up the cups as if to show them off. He turned to the refrigerator, and said “I can offer you…”

He swung the fridge door shut again.

“Absolutely nothing. We have GOT to go grocery shopping again. And by we I mean Chandler, because I barely have rent money.”

“A glass of water would be fine,” Rachel said, a bit amused at his triumphant discovery of the cups, and subsequent defeat at having nothing to fill them with. She might have even smiled a bit.

Joey finished filling the water glasses and carried them over to the couch, where he took a seat next to Rachel.

“So what exactly happened, Rachel? Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked, gently. “I mean, if you don’t want to we don’t have to, obviously, but…”

“It’s fine, Joey, I… I don’t mind. It was nothing, honestly, I was just overreacting.” Rachel said, holding her water glass down at her knees and staring at it intently. She really felt foolish, now, for coming over and bothering Joey with her nonsense.

Joey nudged her arm, to get her attention, and she looked up at him.

“You’ve gone through a lot in the past couple days. Hell, in the past 24 hours! Even if the thing that made you cry was ‘nothing,’ there’s still a lot of emotional baggage that you’re dealing with too. So y’know, it's okay to cry. And it’s also okay to talk about whatever you wanna talk about, even if it seems meaningless or unrelated to whatever else you’re dealing with. Especially if you can find someone that is willing to listen, someone thats there for you. And Rachel, I may not know you THAT well, but…”

Joey leaned in just the slightest bit, extending his hand to touch Rachel’s shoulder in a comforting way.  
“I’m here for you.”

Rachel teared up a bit at that. She had met this man yesterday, but since then he had been witness to… well, not some of her finest moments. And here he was, not just rolling with the punches, but willing to help however he could, even if it was just with some water and talking. 

After she had broken up with Monica, Rachel had cultivated a new set of friends. Not that she had abandoned ALL of her old friends, of course, but she had fallen out of touch with many of them, and it was so hard to… oh, what was the use in denying it? She had abandoned her old friends, and sought new ones that would maintain her image. 

Not since her time with Monica had Rachel had a truly good friend. Even her bridesmaid, Mindy, would never have done even these little things for Rachel- she would have long since bailed and left Rachel to deal with everything alone.

Rachel composed herself, though, not wanting to dissolve into another crying fit, at least not right now anyway. 

Rolling her eyes to the ceiling as if in search of words, Rachel began “Well, what happened was…”

Suddenly Rachel registered a change in the ambient noise. It took her a moment to pinpoint what it was, then realized that there had been the very faint sound of running water the entire time she’d been in the apartment.

“Oh, is Chandler home?” Rachel asked, gesturing toward the closed door she assumed was the bathroom.

“Oh, uhh… Actually no,” Joey said, “I had somebody over earlier…”

Joey let the words hang, and it took Rachel a moment to register his meaning.

“OH! Oh, I’m so sorry for just barging in on you like this Joey, oh my god I’m such an idiot.”

Rachel began to stand, putting down her water glass.

“I can just come back later, this really isn’t important…”

Joey also stood, but waved his hands, trying to calm her immediate anxiety at the thought of having interrupted him.

“No no, Rachel its really no problem! They were just getting ready to head to work anyway, and needed to take a quick shower, you can stay.”

“Are you sure?” Rachel asked, skeptical, but still wanting to vent all of her emotions.

“Yeah, of course!” Joey replied.

They sat back down on the couch, and Rachel was prepared to begin again.

Just then, the door opened. A figure clad in plain white tshirt, with a flannel print shirt over it, walked out from the bathroom.

Joey tilted his head back, eventually tipping back his whole body as he leaned to be closer to the person.  
“Hey! How you doin’?” he said, in a distinct tone, that gave Rachel the impression it was a phrase he often uttered. Still, it was said with a sort of familiarity, something that was confirmed when the other person replied, “I’m doin’ just fine, Joey, but I gotta run to work, or I’m gonna be late.”

Noticing Rachel, they spoke up, “Oh hi! You must be Rachel, Joey mentioned you might drop by. Nice to meet you, I’m Alex.”

Walking up to Joey, they leaned down and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, as they said, “I really do have to run Joey! I’ll see you later.”

“Bye!” Joey called, as Alex headed towards the door, and pulled it closed behind them.

Turning back to Rachel, Joey said “Sorry for all the interruptions. I think we’ll be good for a bit now. You were saying?”

Rachel’s eyes lingered on the door for a few moments, but she chose to put out of her mind Joey’s date and focus on dealing with her feelings.

“So I was watching some Netflix and just kinda chilling out in Monica’s apartment, when her brother came by…”

“Oh man, Ross came by?” Joey said, almost incredulously “I know he’s Monica’s brother and all, but… I kinda hate that guy!”

Rachel laughed, a full and genuine laugh, for the honesty of his statement. Honestly, who did she know that DIDN’T hate Ross, at least a little bit? 

“Well, anyway, he offered to go get coffee with me, and I thought it might be a good idea, to get me out of the apartment for a bit…”

Joey visibly winced, sucking air through his teeth.

Rachel continued, “Yeah, that was about as good an idea as you are imagining. He blabbered the whole time, I barely got to talk at all. And then after, he decided that he would treat it like a date, and even brought up that we should go out on another, more official date. And I honestly did not know what to say!” 

“So, I decided to start by saying that I had just left my fiance, because I figured that would make him lay off a bit. But then he pressed, wanted to start by ‘just talking’ and hanging out.”

Joey literally facepalmed at this, at the sheer secondhand ignorance. “Jerk,” he said. “But please, continue.”

“Well,” Rachel said, “Then I said something about that he didn’t know what had happened, what I’d dealt with, and he just point-blank asked what HAD happened, and I didn’t know what to tell him! It was all too complex to stand there and explain. So I ended up telling him I was gay.”

Joey actually chuckled at that. “Oh man, did he tell you the stories about…”

“…His college girlfriend who turned out to be gay, yeah!” Rachel finished. “He spent like 30 minutes telling me that entire story.”

Joey absolutely cackled at that. 

“I’m so sorry, it's not funny, its just… its just…” 

Rachel started giggling too. “No, I do see the humor in it.”

She sobered after a moment, remembering her crying fit after.

“And after that… I dunno, it all just seemed too much. Which is silly, I mean, the whole conversation, it meant nothing.”

Joey also stopped laughing, and got more serious.

“No, I get that, Rachel. I have been there, I’ve dealt with that.”

Without thinking, Rachel began to say “How could you have…” 

She cut herself off right away, realizing what she’d been saying. How could she say something so awful to someone who was just being a good friend?

“How could I have dealt with all the same feelings?” Joey said, finishing the thought. 

Rachel’s face froze, terrified that she had offended him, but his face was still soft.

“I’ll grant you, I didn’t deal with the wedding and the fiancé and the stuff. But a lot of what you’ve dealt with in the past day is coming out to the people in your life. Not only that, but feeling forced to come out, rather than doing it on your own timeframe. And that… that I’ve dealt with,” Joey said, a bit somberly.

“I’m so sorry, Joey, I didn’t mean…” Rachel started.

“No, Rachel, I’m not offended. I felt the same way, actually, that no one else could really understand, could have felt the way I did. It all happened so quickly, and I didn’t feel like I got the chance to do it properly.”

Joey took a deep breath, leaning back and then forward with the breath, preparing to tell his story.  
“I’m pansexual. The way I’ve felt about others, who I’ve been attracted to, its never really mattered what their gender is, to me. I didn’t always understand that, of course, but even when I was a teenager, I used to say that I found the other boys just as handsome as the girls. And I even began dating some nonbinary people when I moved out of my parent’s house for the first time.”

Here Joey smiled, obviously remembering the thrill of discovering himself for the first time. But he returned to that same, more serious face again after a moment. 

“Then one day, one Thanksgiving actually, I was home for dinner that year. At the time I was dating a man. It wasn’t the first time, and I honestly had not given much thought to what I would say if someone asked me who I was dating that year. I had so many practiced responses at that point, I could answer almost automatically without really giving away any information.”  
“So we’re sitting, eating dinner, and my mom looks up casually and asks, ‘So Joey, are you dating anybody?’ and I answer immediately ‘Oh, there’s a couple girls I’ve been out with, nothing too serious.’”  
“And my mom says ‘Oh yeah? Dina said she saw you out yesterday with somebody.’”  
“I literally broke out in a cold sweat. I had gone to a movie yesterday with my boyfriend. I tired desperately to remember if we had kissed in public, but I honestly wasn’t sure. But that question got answered quick, because the next words out of my mom’s mouth were ‘She says she saw you kissing a guy.’”  
“At that point, I froze. I’d never practiced what to say to that. What was there to say? Could I deny it? Would they believe it hadn’t been me? Or that it hadn’t been a guy? But I had no quick thinking skills, so I just said, ‘Oh yeah?’ and continued to eat my food.”  
“My mom put down her knife and fork and said, ‘So is it true? Are you gay?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m not gay. I’m bi.’ That was the label I used at the time, anyway. This led to a several minute discussion of trying to explain what bisexuality was, and by the end of it, tempers were definitely kinda high. Nobody really said anything directly, but I walked out of the house and went for a walk. When I got back, everyone pretended it didn’t happen, pretty much, and I called for a taxi and left shortly after that.”  
“Here’s the thing though: after that, for the next week, every time anything would come up that was remotely related to my family, or my sexuality, or really anything else, I would just freak out. Sometimes I would get really angry, sometimes I would get kinda scared. Once or twice I even ended up crying. Even just being seen with my boyfriend in public could cause me to freak out, which I still believe let to the deterioration of our relationship. What’s more, I didn’t have anyone to talk to about it, or help sort out what I was feeling. Or rather, I didn’t go to anyone- there were several people that probably would have been willing to talk to me if I’d only asked.”

“Everything ended up working out. My mom and dad both worked through their feelings about it. My sisters all did too. They just needed some time. Now, they’re super supportive, and I’ve been to Thanksgiving dinner with girlfriends, boyfriends, and partners of nonbinary gender.”

“So, yeah, I’ve been there Rachel. And I can tell you, you’re gonna get through it. Our situations may not be identical, they may not work out in exactly the same way, but you will survive it, I promise you. I did! And I’ll be there to help you get through your situation, too.”

“Oh Joey!” Rachel said. She leaned over, and gave Joey a hug.

“Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m so sorry you had to go through it. And thank you… for letting me be able to vent to you.”

Joey hugged her back. “Just… let yourself deal with your emotions. Recognize them and deal with them. That’s what I wish I had known, back then.”

Rachel wiped at her eyes again, as she separated from Joey’s hug. She wasn’t really crying again, yet, but she wouldn’t put it past herself.

Joey cleared his throat. “Well, I think Monica is supposed to be home soon, she usually gets off work around now. Do you wanna head over to her apartment?”

“Yeah,” Rachel responded, “She’s supposed to bring home a pizza for dinner. I could use something to eat.”

“Aw man, pizza? I would LOVE some pizza. Think she’ll bring enough for me?” Joey asked, as he and Rachel stood up and headed for the door.

“I’m sure there’ll be at least a couple slices you can have,” Rachel responded, as Joey held the door open for her.

Joey stood in the door, and said “Rachel,” in a very serious tone.

Rachel looked back at him.

“You don’t understand. If I eat pizza, I need the Joey Special,” he said.

“What is the Joey Special?” Rachel asked.

“Two pizzas,” Joey responded.

Rachel laughed, as Joey stepped out of his apartment and closed the door behind him, as they stepped fully into the hall.

Just then, a voice responded to Joey’s comment from the stairs.

“Well, Joey, I don’t have a full two pizzas for you, but I do have two pizzas, and one of them is for you!”  
“Monica!” Rachel said, happily. 

Monica approached, pulling out her own apartment key to use at the door. She held the pizzas with one hand, and Joey grabbed them both. 

“I can make do,” he said, as Monica held the door open and they all headed inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't totally sure how to pick up after last chapter, but after all of y'all's comments, I got inspired and decided to write another chapter! I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! Please comment and let me know! Do you think my characterization of Joey was okay? I know I took him in a bit of a different direction, but I wanted to kinda work with his character and backstory this chapter.  
> What did you think could have been improved? Is there a character you can't wait to hear more about? Do you want to see more chapters? Let me know in the comments! Thanks y'all!


	6. When Monica Met Rachel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a pizza dinner, Monica and Joey spend some time talking about how she and Rachel first met.

It did not take long for the three of them to polish off the pizzas. To be more accurate, Monica and Rachel had each had a couple of slices of their pizza, while Rachel had watched Joey demolish the entire pizza Monica had brought for him, while muttering ‘I thought he was exaggerating.’ Monica, having long since ceased to be amazed at Joey’s enormous appetite, had watched Rachel with amusement. It was always fun to watch someone else fully realize that Joey was quite serious when he said he would eat two entire pizzas.  
In fact, just to prove it, once Joey had finished off his own pizza, he asked Monica and Rachel if they were going to want any more of their pizza, and had eaten what was left of that as well!

 

After they had finished eating, with no other plans for the evening, Monica suggested they watch a movie.  
Joey immediately agreed, and leapt forward with his suggestion. “Can we watch that new superhero action movie? It has VERY gay subtext.” His voice was filled with hope, and his eyes positively twinkled at the prospect.

Monica rolled her eyes. “Joey, you’ve already seen that movie like 5 times, and made me watch it twice. I will agree, it was very gay, and very good, but maybe we can watch something else.”

Flipping through the suggested movies on Netflix, Monica stopped on a generic romantic comedy. “Maybe we can watch something a little more…laid-back? Low-stakes? Like this?”

Joey huffed. “If you’ve already seen the movie twice it ought to be lower-stakes, right? Besides, I don’t feel like watching a romantic comedy.”

“Actually,” Rachel chimed in, in an effort to put a stop to any potential bickering, “I don’t think I really feel up to either one of those. Maybe we could just watch a TV show instead?”

Joey shrugged. “I guess I’d be okay with that.”

“Me too,” Monica said. “Any show you had in mind in particular, Rachel?”

“There’s that cooking show that everyone talks about… with the 12 contestants and the judges?”

“Oh yeah, I know which one you mean,” Monica said, “We’ve watched all of those already I think.”

“Well, I’m way behind on episodes, so if you guys would be okay with rewatching it…” Rachel said, hopefully.

Joey and Monica made eye contact for a moment, both shrugged, and nodded.

“Sounds good to me,” Monica said, as she looked up the show and put on the episode that Rachel indicated.

After 15 minutes, Rachel had fallen sound asleep, head resting gently on Joey’s shoulder. Joey was startled at first, but smiled gently, and after a few moments, stood and gently lowered Rachel’s head to the sofa cushion, so she could rest without getting a crick in her neck.

After he had safely extricated himself from the couch, Joey motioned to Monica, indicating that she should follow him to the kitchen table. Monica nodded, and joined him in sitting at the kitchen table.

“So Ross apparently showed up here today,” Joey whispered to Monica.

Monica winced. “Again? Geez. Well, did you stop him coming in and snooping?”

Joey shook his head. “I never actually saw him. Apparently he found Rachel in the apartment, and invited her for coffee. I don’t want to get into the details, as it's her story to tell, but I just wanted to warn you that he’d been here, and he may make trouble for you and/or Rachel.”

Monica sighed, and dropped her head to the table, mumbling, “When does he ever NOT make trouble?”

Raising her head with a jerk, she said, “Does he know she was engaged?”

Joey nodded. “Even more than that, she ended up coming out to him, I gather he was kinda being a jerk to her.”

Monica growled a bit at that. “Of course he was, its Rachel Green. Do you know, all throughout the time Rachel and I dated, he would constantly ask me to set him up on a date with her. He never even made the connection, when I came out as bi, that Rachel and I might have been dating.”

Joey rolled his eyes, but said, “It honestly doesn’t surprise me, even though I really wish it did.”

Returning his eyes from the ceiling to Monica, Joey shifted in his seat a bit. Clearing his throat a little, and just generally seeming to get more serious, Monica could tell he had something he wanted to ask her. He stayed silent, though, never quite seeming to work up the words to say. After they had sat in silence for a few moments, Monica finally spoke up.

“Well, what is it Joey? I can tell you want to ask me something. Just ask!”

Joey almost seemed to jump in his chair a little, a bit taken aback that Monica would be so upfront. Staring at the table now, he mumbled his words just a little. 

“I’m not sure I should even ask, I mean, really, its none of my business… but…”

Joey lifted his eyes back to Monica, who was still staring intently at him, awaiting the question. 

Joey continued his train of thought. “I got some of the details when Rachel first showed up, but… how is it that you guys knew each other? How did you end up dating, and why exactly did you break up? I mean, like I said, I know some of the basics, but…”

Monica sighed, thinking back. “Well, that was… a long time ago. But I don’t mind talking about it.”

Joey sat up a bit straighter in his seat, seeming to perk up a bit at the prospect of a story.

“Well, when we first met, I believe it was in freshman year of high school. We sat close to or next to one another in most of our classes, because, y’know… Geller, Green, they’re very close together in the alphabet.”

“I don’t remember the specifics of the first time we met, it’s kind of all in that hazy ‘early days of high school’ memory fog. But I do remember that we would both eat alone at lunch, because we couldn’t find a decent group of friends we could sit with. And one day, we had been talking in the period right before lunch, and ended up sitting together. After all, eating lunch ‘alone,’ is a lot easier with somebody else.”

Monica laughed at her little joke, and Joey gave a weak smile, but kept quiet, silently urging her to go on.

“Well, I think from there it just kinda progressed more naturally. We were lab partners for our science class, and we ended up studying together at one of our houses or the other, at least a couple times a week.”

“Oh yeah? STUDYING, huh?” Joey said, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

“Joey, oh my god, grow up. We were like, 14 or 15, we were not hooking up. Neither of us knew we might be interested in girls at the time, anyway.”

Shaking her head, as if to clear the image Joey had planted there, Monica continued.

“Well, I think it was in sophomore year. We had fewer classes together, but we both still wanted to get together and hang out a few times a week. Without an excuse, I had kinda worried we’d drift apart, but instead, Rachel started asking if we could meet up after school. We would help each other with studying, even if it was a class the other person wasn’t in. We went out shopping sometimes, we went to see movies. It was mostly normal ‘best friend’ stuff you see in TV and the movies, I guess. I think that’s where the root of us being a “couple” started.”

“Junior year was when we really got together. We were going to continue the same pattern, but Rachel ended up trying out for cheerleading that year, and got in. I, once again, expected us to drift apart because of it, but we still ended up doing a lot of things together. I would hang around after school, sometimes in the bleachers to watch her practice, sometimes just in the library or wherever, that I could do some of my own studying while I waited. We’d still go out to the movies, still go shopping. The biggest new thing was the parties.”

“So, as a cheerleader, Rachel would get invited to parties sometimes. A lot of the other cheerleaders liked her, and she was friends with a lot of them. But, the first party they invited her to, they told her she couldn’t bring ‘her weird friend,’ and that she should use her ‘plus one’ to bring one of the guys from the football team.”

Joey grimaced at that. “Those cheerleaders weren’t very good friends, if they wanted her to drop her other friend. So did she do it?” he asked.

Monica smiled. “Yeah, they weren’t very nice people. Still aren’t, probably. And Rachel had the same reaction, when they told her that. She ranted and raved for like fifteen minutes to me, that they wanted to exclude me from the party. And it's not even like anyone would have noticed me there, it wasn’t a sit-down dinner type thing, if you know what I mean. Eventually, Rachel ended up in tears, and said that she didn’t want to bring any of the boys, just her best friend.”

“Awww,” Joey said.

Monica blushed a little “Yeah, I know. Anyway, I told her just to take someone else, but it suddenly occurred to her that she could just bring me, and say that I was her plus one.”

Monica smiled at the memory. 

“It was the first of many parties, and we went to all of them together. Most of the cheerleaders eventually got used to me, especially when I started tutoring some of them to help them pass their math and science classes. It was one of them that first called us a ‘couple.’ She wasn’t serious, she meant it jokingly, and at the time Rachel and I both laughed.”

“That night, we were having a sleepover at my house, because Rachel’s parents were going to be out of town. Late that night, both of us laying in the dark, I somehow found the words to bring up the girl calling us a couple, and ‘wasn’t that so funny.’ Rachel didn’t laugh that time, just said, ‘Hmm…’ or something like that.”

“And I asked her, ‘Can you imagine us? Being an actual couple?’ and she said, ‘Yeah.’”

“We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I eventually said, ‘Me too.’”

“We didn’t talk about it for a few weeks after that, but one night, while we were at my house again, up late studying for a test, it came back up. We had decided to take a break, because we’d been working for several hours. I remember vividly, we were in my room, and I was still sitting in the chair, now pushed back from the desk, and she had laid down on her back across my bed, trying to stretch out and relax. She had been staring at the ceiling for a couple of minutes, in silence, and we had music playing softly in the background. She said… 

 

‘Hey Mon? You ever think about kissing?’

‘Yeah, sometimes.’

‘Who do you think about kissing?’

‘Oh, I dunno Rach… people, I guess.’

‘Do you ever think about kissing me?’

‘I…uhh…’

‘Cause I think about kissing you. A lot.’”

 

“She sat up on the bed, looking at me, to gauge my reaction. I stared at her for a minute, and finally just said, ‘Yeah.’”

“‘Do you… want to try kissing?’ she asked.”

“I remember my heart was thudding. I could only nod. We both stood up. We looked at each other for a minute. And we kissed. I couldn’t tell you what was running through my head, or if fireworks went off, or what. But I know that that moment changed my life.”

“Both of us kinda developed from there. I researched whether it was normal to like girls, because after all, we didn’t know anyone at the time who did! And I came across the terms lesbian and bisexual. I told Rachel about them, and she was sure she was a lesbian, and I felt strongly that I was bisexual.”

“We dated, after that, I guess. I mean, if you look at it, we’d already been dating, for a long time. Now, though, when we were together, it felt like we were together as a couple, not as best friends. Nobody really noticed, because we were already together a lot. We weren’t open about being an actual couple, and I don’t know if we ever actually discussed, for that first year, whether we were ‘officially’ a couple. We did, eventually, officially ‘have a talk’ to say we were a couple, after a scare at the junior prom, where we both got asked to go with a boy. We ended up agreeing to go with them, to keep up the charade, but we spent most of the night dancing together.”

“We ended up going to the same college, and dating all the way through senior year. We shared a dorm, first semester, and rented an apartment the rest of the time; it was easier that way. I came out to my parents, in that time, and she agreed that we could tell them that we were dating, as long as they promised not to tell her parents. We never told Ross, because by that point he was off at his own college, and I didn’t think he really needed to know.”

“Rachel also never told her parents, obviously. She was petrified that they’d find out we were together, and it did put a bit of a strain on our relationship, but I never let it stand in the way. I totally understood her fear of coming out to them, especially her dad. Hell, I was scared to come out to her dad! He’s pretty homophobic, and overall just pretty loud and scary.”

“It all seemed perfect… until our senior year. She started to be more distant, not talking to me about stuff as much, and I found her crying on more than one occasion. As it turns out, her parents, believing she was single, had started trying to manipulate her to go on dates with guys they thought would be right for her. She never wanted to bring it up, she said because ‘It would put a strain on our relationship.’”

“Eventually, one day, before Christmas break, she came to me, and said she wanted to break up. She said that she was so tired of having to pretend to be two people, and she could never see herself coming out to her dad. I tried to reason with her, pleaded with her to stay, but she said that she had a date with a guy named Barry next week, and she actually thought he was pretty cute, that she might even be bisexual after all.”

Monica sniffed, not really crying, but a little emotional. “She cried, I cried. She told me that it wasn’t that she didn’t love me, but that she knew we’d been distant, and part of it was the strain of her not being able to be out, and she didn’t want to put me through that anymore. She walked out of the apartment that day, and the next semester, our last semester, she moved into a different apartment, with some of her other friends, people she knew from classes and such. We both graduated, and never really talked again, though I did watch her facebook page, and saw that she had gotten engaged to Barry.”

At this, Monica had to stop and wipe a few tears from her eyes. 

“I… I never told anyone this, but I actually had bought an engagement ring, I was going to propose before we left for Christmas break.”

Joey, previously sitting in the chair across the table from her, hurried to move around to the chair beside her instead, and gave her a hug.

Patting her on the arm a little, Joey said, “Monica, I’m so sorry. It sounds like she put you through a lot. I have to ask… why did you agree to let her back into your life, after all of that? Didn’t you… kinda hate her for all she put you through?”

Monica blinked at the question, staring at Joey for a minute. “I never hated her, that’s the thing. I don’t think I ever stopped loving her. She was my best friend, for years and years, and my girlfriend for even longer. We didn’t break up because we didn’t love each other, and I even understood why she felt like she had to break up with me. I don’t know… maybe I should have been… should be! more upset, but I just never could be…”

Joey hugged her again, though Monica was no longer crying. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Monica. You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah, Joey, I know. I love you too. Platonically though.” She held out her pinky finger.

Joey over-exaggeratedly snapped his fingers, and said, “Oh darn. Well, I guess that’ll have to do.” He laughed softly, and met Monica’s pinky finger. A pinky swear had become their thing a few years back, when Monica had first made it clear she was not interested in dating Joey, and Joey had agreed, amicably, to respect her boundaries as a friend. It was meant to emphasize that, even if they weren’t involved romantically, they could still be close friends.

Rachel stirred on the couch, as the end credits of the tv show began rolling. Monica and Joey both stood up, but before Monica could leave, Joey gently grabbed her shoulder. 

“Just be careful with yourself around her, Monica. You have a tendency to put yourself last. Just make sure you’re not letting yourself get too wrapped up in something you aren’t prepared to deal with.”

“I know Joey. I’ll be careful,” Monica said, as she glanced over towards the couch, and watched Rachel’s head pop up. With an enormous yawn, Rachel looked around and said, “Did I fall asleep?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this newest chapter! I wanted to give a little filler, and some more backstory to how Rachel and Monica first met/dated/broke up.   
> I wanna hear from you guys though! Did you enjoy seeing some more of Monica/Rachel? How do you feel about the way they broke up? Are there more characters you can't wait to hear more about? What do you think the future has in store for our Friends? Let me know what you thought in the comments! All of your comments and support have definitely given me a boost in motivation to get some more content out :)


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